North of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists excavated an extraordinary cemetery with its residents having died almost 4,000 years ago. Yet their bodies have been well preserved by the dry air. What's strange are the mummies themselves; while found in China, the facial features very much resemble those of European descent, especially the brown hair and noses.
It appeared very ritualized, where no tombstones were found, but what the NY Times is referring to as: "vigorous forest of phallic symbols." (don't quite feel comfortable taking credit for that sentence). Supposedly that symbolizes the interest in pleasure/reproduction.
With the bodies they have been carbon dating them, trying to see how old these are. They seem to be the oldest mummies discovered in Tarim Basin.
Cool facts about the DNA in figuring out origin:
The Y chromosome was examined in the men, in addition to the mitochondrial DNA for women. Both lineage markers did not include China as a place holder for any of the bodies. This suggests that these were from 2 prominent European countries, Siberia, some from OTHER parts of Asia.
The site had several boats, which were actually the coffin, contained graveyard goodies, including beautifully woven grass baskets, skillfully carved masks and bundles of ephedra, an herb that may have been used in rituals or as a medicine. Worried about their weight? (Oh, aren't I witty?)
Many of the archaeologists remark on a lot of sexual symbology, pertaining to what was left in the female coffin, to the "vigorous forest," many a phallic symbol was to be found. It seems as if the archaeologists spent some time determining how many phallic symbols there really were. The reason why seems to be a possible high infant mortality, which makes discovering a culture with a strong penchant for sexual symbolic expression a little bit easier.
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